To increase the use of polymer structural composites, a major problem is properly accounting for intra-laminar failure mechanisms such as fiber kinking caused under compression. Fiber kinking is triggered by the initial misalignment of the fibers with respect to the compressive force. The usual kink-band width varies between 10-30 fiber diameters. The carbon fibers used today typically have a diameter in the range of 5-10 micrometres, which corresponds to a kink band width of no more than a few hundred microns. Resolving this length scale computationally is not feasible for structural composites, and therefore, a multiscale approach is warranted. The model is based on a previous structure tensor-based model for the response of unidirectional (UD) plies, derived on the basis of the homogenized stress response in a representative volume element with embedded kink band kinematics. Material degradation is modeled on an anisotropic continuum damage degradation model. An internal length parameter is introduced to describe the rate-dependent diffuse fracture area, as well as the width of the kink band. In this contribution, we perform a parameter study and a sensitivity analysis of the presented model. In particular, the sensitivity of the rate of damage to the diffuse fracture area is compared to the effect of gradient damage with respect to finite element spatial and time discretization of the sample. A parametric study and sensitivity analysis of the material behavior and energy dissipation are carried out within the limiting ranges of the parameters. The results are evaluated in terms of axial strain - compressive axial stress curves and the energy absorbed in compression tests of a UD-ply at different off-axis angles.